No no no... EVERYTHING is a syndrome or condition and needs to be treated with Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Welbutrin, Geodon, Seroquel, Depakote, etc - and if those don't work, start at the top of the list only this time add Ambilify.

They MUST have medical credibility - I mean, whenever I'm in the waiting room at the Drs. there's ALWAYS some very well dressed suit coming through the door, trinkets for the staff & sampled in the box security in hand - most of them even know the pass codes to get back into the exam rooms and drs offices.

My brother-in-law is almost thirty and still lives with his mother. He works part-time at a fast food shop and has dropped out of three different colleges. After doing some research on the internet, he discovered he has Asperger's, and is therefore unlikely to go any further with his life.

/his girlfriend is a genius, dontcha know//works at a different fast food place///took an IQ test in high school and scored something like 200 points////also is a speed reader and read Game of Thrones in a half an hour//yes, holidays are fun at our house

whizbangthedirtfarmer:My brother-in-law is almost thirty and still lives with his mother. He works part-time at a fast food shop and has dropped out of three different colleges. After doing some research on the internet, he discovered he has Asperger's, and is therefore unlikely to go any further with his life.

/his girlfriend is a genius, dontcha know//works at a different fast food place///took an IQ test in high school and scored something like 200 points////also is a speed reader and read Game of Thrones in a half an hour//yes, holidays are fun at our house

reillan:As someone who would have been diagnosed with Aspergers and who had to figure out how to participate in society anyway, I approve of the headline

This. Not that it's remotely the same mind you, but my brother, sister and I all are children of a SpEd teacher who are, at the very least, totally ADD (with a little OCD thrown in for fun). None of us were ever "diagnosed" as such, but we're all very much aware that we need to do things differently than other people.

\Henry Winkler was considered a goof-off and a class clown in school...because he had dyslexia.\\Our need for reason has got us to the world of diagnosis of everything, yet no one has bothered to mention we still have to live with said diagnoses.

lewismarktwo:whizbangthedirtfarmer: My brother-in-law is almost thirty and still lives with his mother. He works part-time at a fast food shop and has dropped out of three different colleges. After doing some research on the internet, he discovered he has Asperger's, and is therefore unlikely to go any further with his life.

/his girlfriend is a genius, dontcha know//works at a different fast food place///took an IQ test in high school and scored something like 200 points////also is a speed reader and read Game of Thrones in a half an hour//yes, holidays are fun at our house

Wait, he's got a girlfriend?

He's got somebody who has moved in with his mother. They don't have sex, apparently, because having Asperger's prevents them from forming relationships. It says so on the internet. The word is still out on mooching off of a retiree.

I was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome when I was only around 6 years old. I've met some people in my life who fit the stereotype perfectly. In fact, oddly enough, there was an ARTHUR episode about aspeger's: youtube link

There are people who completely lack social skills and need to learn them manually. And there's those who actually go out and socialize. I personally never understood the connection to autism at all. In some cases, sure, I can sort of get where they're coming from, but the diagnosis itself seems incomplete.

thamike: Yeah, remember when absolutely nobodystopped calling homosexuality a mental disorder? It's almost as if the DSM isn't highly influential and important or something.

A) Not comparable. You can bring up as many orthogonal examples as you like, but it doesn't have any bearing on my point, which

B) You're intentionally missing.

If you think I'm honestly wrong, and magically now "the term 'Asperger's Syndrome' will soon cease to exist", fine, stand up and say so.

Personally, while I think a change in the official view of dopa / focus issues is a good idea, I don't think the new ranking, which intrinsically suggests that they're essentially differences of degree even though it's been established that neurologically they are not, is a good one. But that wasn't my point, either. As I'm sure you could tell.

bulldg4life:Most of them were just your standard geek/nerd, but one or two were off the wall.

...and that's why it's called a "spectrum disorder". By the way, is everybody on Fark aware that a great many mental health professionals think that DSM-5 is a crock of shiat? It medicalizes a lot of perfectly normal behavior (like grieving the death of somebody close) while discarding established, valid diagnoses like Asperger's.

Pretty soon, the psychiatric profession is going to look even more stupid than it does now as its diagnoses increasingly get overtaken by real science, replacing the subjective nonsense and grand theories with the actual neurological, physical and chemical correlates of mental disorders. It's going to turn out that in a lot of cases, distinct diagnoses turn out to be different manifestations of a single underlying problem; while other common diagnoses turn out to be several different disorders that happen to have similar external manifestations.

And in the future we're going to look back on the last half-century of psychiatric diagnosis and practice with the same disdain that many people regard the half-century before that.

czetie:bulldg4life: Most of them were just your standard geek/nerd, but one or two were off the wall.

...and that's why it's called a "spectrum disorder". By the way, is everybody on Fark aware that a great many mental health professionals think that DSM-5 is a crock of shiat? It medicalizes a lot of perfectly normal behavior (like grieving the death of somebody close) while discarding established, valid diagnoses like Asperger's.

Actually, yeah. I've seen where grieving is now a mental illness, and it's bullshiat. I also think Aspergers is probably a valid disorder. However, it's also the Kim Kardashian of psychiatric disorders... everyone has it, and it's all over the place, especially if you go on the internet looking for it.

RandomAxe:thamike: Yeah, remember when absolutely nobodystopped calling homosexuality a mental disorder? It's almost as if the DSM isn't highly influential and important or something.

A) Not comparable. You can bring up as many orthogonal examples as you like, but it doesn't have any bearing on my point, which

B) You're intentionally missing.

If you think I'm honestly wrong, and magically now "the term 'Asperger's Syndrome' will soon cease to exist", fine, stand up and say so.

Personally, while I think a change in the official view of dopa / focus issues is a good idea, I don't think the new ranking, which intrinsically suggests that they're essentially differences of degree even though it's been established that neurologically they are not, is a good one. But that wasn't my point, either. As I'm sure you could tell.

I assumed whatever point you were making was meant to be reflected by your statement:

RandomAxe: For christ's sake, people will still call it Asperger's. The farking psychiatric diagnostic manual doesn't control reality. You'd have to be crazy to think it does.

While the first sentence is irrelevant--that people will call it what they want. The second sentence implies that the reason some people will use whatever the trending nomenclature is despite its accuracy is due to the relative triviality of the DSM. The third sentence bolsters that oddly self incriminating assertion with a preemptive accusation meant as humor but resonating as nervous laughter upon examination.

And now you would like me to support an assertion I never made. What does the DSM call your disorder?

czetie:bulldg4life: Most of them were just your standard geek/nerd, but one or two were off the wall.

...and that's why it's called a "spectrum disorder". By the way, is everybody on Fark aware that a great many mental health professionals think that DSM-5 is a crock of shiat? It medicalizes a lot of perfectly normal behavior (like grieving the death of somebody close) while discarding established, valid diagnoses like Asperger's.

Pretty soon, the psychiatric profession is going to look even more stupid than it does now as its diagnoses increasingly get overtaken by real science, replacing the subjective nonsense and grand theories with the actual neurological, physical and chemical correlates of mental disorders. It's going to turn out that in a lot of cases, distinct diagnoses turn out to be different manifestations of a single underlying problem; while other common diagnoses turn out to be several different disorders that happen to have similar external manifestations.

And in the future we're going to look back on the last half-century of psychiatric diagnosis and practice with the same disdain that many people regard the half-century before that.

No- mental health pros actually READ and understand how the DSM works. If 5 of 7 symptoms need to be present....

....then again, there was that whole dissociative identity disorder debacle.

Asperger's (and social/mental disabilities in general) is always an excellent reminder that I am not "owed" respect, or courtesy, or compassion, or decency; that my right to have a face ends where your swinging fist connects.

My mother's stepson has the Asperger's. The very first time I heard her say the term, I was like, "wait, what is this need to assign a name to the fact that he's awkward teenager?"

I've always disliked the term. Especially since I've seen the evidence of his using "his social shortcomings" as an excuse to expect special treatment.

I swear, his parents coddle him too much. And my mother does too. The dude is 21 now. He acts like he's 17. He hasn't even gotten his driver's license yet. How do they ever expect him to be able to take care of himself if they are always holding his hand?

They try this every so often with different conditions. It never takes, professionals and sufferers continue to use the same nomenclature, and it goes back to being called what everyone freakin' called it in the first place.

FirstNationalBastard:However, it's also the Kim Kardashian of psychiatric disorders... everyone has it, and it's all over the place, especially if you go on the internet looking for it.

This. When smart, middle-class parents have a child who, let's be kind, reverts to the mean, they often look for a diagnosis. In my generation it was "dyslexia", which was suddenly rampant. And of course, in exactly the same way, this doesn't diminish the fact that there are people who really do have dyslexia, and that it often goes under-diagnoses. Which brings us neatly to...

filter:No- mental health pros actually READ and understand how the DSM works. If 5 of 7 symptoms need to be present....

...the problem with psychiatric diagnosis right there. It depends on externally-observed symptoms, often vague, often subjective, often required to be present to a certain degree (the words "clinically significant" or "pervasive" turn up a lot, with no objective definitions) and to persist over an extended period of time, sometimes self-reported, to be considered a symptom, and in many cases the weasel get-out clause at the end "and it's not some other equally vaguely defined disorder". Is it any wonder that "mental health pros actually read and understand how the DSM works" and still regularly can't agree on a diagnosis, let alone the most effective form of treatment?

For example, here's the DSM-IV criteria for Asperger's. The very first word is "Qualitative", and the entire diagnosis is subjective. Do some people clearly have Asperger's? Yes. Do a lot more people fall into a grey area where "mental health pros" will reasonably disagree where 2, 3 or more symptoms are present or absent? Also yes.

bump:No no no... EVERYTHING is a syndrome or condition and needs to be treated with Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Welbutrin, Geodon, Seroquel, Depakote, etc - and if those don't work, start at the top of the list only this time add Ambilify.

They MUST have medical credibility - I mean, whenever I'm in the waiting room at the Drs. there's ALWAYS some very well dressed suit coming through the door, trinkets for the staff & sampled in the box security in hand - most of them even know the pass codes to get back into the exam rooms and drs offices.